Making spirits bright...

Santa Claus lives in Santa Barbara

By NATHAN S. WELTON
South Coast Beacon

It’s pretty easy to get to the North Pole: just cruise down Anacapa Street. You’ll see it on the left.

Santa Claus and his family have sat out front each night for the past week, warming themselves in front of a fire, delivering candy to passers-by and accepting wish lists from perhaps hundreds of the South Coast’s wide-eyed children.

They also greet passing cars, thereby creating a sort of drive-through North Pole.

“See, I do curb service,” said Santa, handing candy canes to passing motorists.

Santa’s house at 1820 Anacapa St. is hard to miss — it’s been a model for holiday decorations for decades — but Mr. Claus himself is equally unforgettable.

He’s dressed in a red suit by night, but by day he’s Joe Conley, who owns Santa Barbara’s most ornamented holiday home with his wife Victoria.

“This has been going on for years and years and years, and we love it because we love the people,” he said.

Anacapa Santa’s a portly character with a big white beard and a jolly laugh — but he’s not quite a typical ‘old guy.’

The retired Navy Rear Admiral wears his 92 years like a

30-something. He was 16 when his father-in-law was born, he delivers food to the homeless seven days a week and he stokes his front-yard fire with squirts of lighter fluid.

“I’ve been kind of a wild and live one,” he said with a chuckle.

Oh yeah: he drives a cherry picker. And a limo. And an RV.

If he gets real inspired he’ll wheel his cherry picker to the front yard, extend it to 30 or 40 feet in the air, and yell “Merry Christmas” to passing cars.

Mrs. Claus bought him the cherry picker to let him decorate his roof in safety — only after he’d fallen off the towering second floor the third time, when he was, oh, say, almost 80.

“Yep, I’m always up there on the roof,” he said, noting he started decorating for this year’s light show after Thanksgiving.

On Monday night, a few days before Christmas, a passing a tourist — excited and giddy — asked for his photo taken with Santa Claus.

“All right, cool,” he said, walking back to his car. “Santa Claus in Santa Barbara.”